10-month-old baby weighs 28 kilograms

A Colima woman had a difficult second pregnancy but in the end gave birth to a healthy boy. Ten months on, however, the child weighs a whopping 28 kilograms, wears adult-size diapers and has physicians trying to find an explanation for his extraordinary weight gain.

Isabel Pantoja’s suffered some minor complications during her pregnancy, including swollen feet during the last trimester and a “hyperactive” fetus she felt was heavier than her first child.

Still, Luis Manuel was born without incident, “with normal measurements and everything was alright,” said his mother, a resident of Tecomán, Colima.

But his inexplicable weight gain began a month later.

“. . . he started growing uncontrollably. He now uses medium-sized adult diapers and the clothes of an eight-year-old, but he’s only 10 months old,” said Pantoja.

Luis Manuel doesn’t sleep well, she explained, keeping the household awake most of the night. And when he does sleep, Pantoja remains wide awake.

“As a mother I fear that one day his heart will fail when we’re asleep.”

The boy’s weight has made it hard for him to move and to breathe, triggering several secondary health conditions that put his life at risk.

They tried to see a pediatrician at IMSS [the Mexican Institute for Social Security], but there was a four-month wait for an appointment and Luis Manuel’s parents didn’t want to wait for answers.

Now, however, some answers are being found. A few weeks ago a group of nutrition experts from Guadalajara, Jalisco, offered to travel to Tecomán to assess her son’s condition.

The nutritionists arrived with a team of cardiologists, endocrinologists and other specialists who performed an electrocardiogram on the baby and took samples of the boy’s saliva and Pantoja’s breast milk for analysis.

A first diagnosis will be made by mid-November, but the specialists believe that Luis Manuel’s condition could be Prader–Willi syndrome, a rare genetic disorder that causes obesity, intellectual disability and poor growth.

If the diagnosis is confirmed, explained Pantoja, her son’s condition, for which there is no cure, could be treated with hormone injections. But the shots are costly, at up to 10,000 pesos (US $522) each.

So far Pantoja and her husband have been able to cover their medical expenses but treating Prader–Willi syndrome would be beyond their means.

Undeterred, Pantoja has asked for help from those that can give it to her son by setting up an Oxxo Saldazo account, 4766 8408 8096 9770, to accept donations.